Data (Use and Access) Bill [HL] Debate

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Department: Department for Business and Trade
Baroness Kidron Portrait Baroness Kidron (CB)
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My Lords, I support the amendments in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones. I perhaps did not say it at the beginning of my remarks on this section, but I fully support the Government’s efforts to create a trust framework. I think I started with criticism rather than with the fact that this is really important. Trust is in the name and if we cannot trust it, it is not going to be a trust framework. It is important to anticipate and address the likelihood that some will seek to abuse it. If there are not sufficient consequences for abusing it, I do not understand quite how we can have the level of trust needed for this to have wide adoption.

I particularly want to say that good systems cannot rely on good people. We know that and we see it. We are going to discuss it later in Committee, but good systems need checks and balances. In relation to this set of amendments, we need a disincentive for bad actors to mislead or give false information to government or the public. I am not going to rehearse each amendment that the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, explained so brilliantly. The briefing on the trust framework is a very important one for us all. The amount of support there is for the idea, and the number of questions about what it means and how it will work, mean that we will come back to this if we do not have a full enough explanation of the disincentives for a bad actor.

Lord Stevenson of Balmacara Portrait Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Lab)
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My Lords, I support these amendments and applaud the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, for his temerity and for offering a variety of choices, making it even more difficult for my noble friend to resist it.

It has puzzled me for some time why the Government do not wish to see a firm line being taken about digital theft. Identity theft in any form must be the most heinous of crimes, particularly in today’s world. This question came up yesterday in an informal meeting about a Private Member’s Bill due up next Friday on the vexed question of the sharing of intimate images and how the Government are going to respond to it. We were sad to discover that there was no support among the Ministry of Justice officials who discussed the Bill with its promoter for seeing it progress any further.

At the heart of that Bill is the same question about what happens when one’s identity is taken and one’s whole career and personality are destroyed by those who take one’s private information and distort it in such a way that those who see it regard it as being a different person or in some way involved in activities that the original person would never have been involved in. Yet we hear that the whole basis on which this digital network has been built up is a voluntary one, and the logic of that is that it would not be necessary to have the sort of amendments that are before us now.

I urge the Government to think very hard about this. There must be a break point here. Maybe the meeting that has been promised will help us, but there is a fundamental point about whether in the digital world we can rely on the same protections that we have in the real world—and, if not, why not?

Viscount Camrose Portrait Viscount Camrose (Con)
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My Lords, I will address the amendments proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, and the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron. I have nothing but the deepest respect for their diligence, and indeed wisdom, in scrutinising all three flavours of the Bill as it has come out, and for their commitment to strengthening the legislative framework against fraud and other misuse of digital systems. However, I have serious reservations about the necessity and proportionality of the amendments under consideration, although I look forward to further debates and I am certainly open to being convinced.

Amendments 51 and 52 would introduce criminal sanctions, including imprisonment, for the misuse of trust marks. While the protection of trust marks is vital for maintaining public confidence in digital systems, I am concerned that introducing custodial sentences for these offences risks overcriminalisation. The misuse of trust marks can and should be addressed through robust civil enforcement mechanisms. Turning every such transgression into a criminal matter would place unnecessary burdens on, frankly, an already strained justice system and risks disproportionately punishing individuals or small businesses for inadvertent breaches.

Furthermore, the amendment’s stipulation that proceedings could be brought only by or with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions or the Secretary of State is an important safeguard, yet it underscores the high level of discretion required to enforce these provisions effectively, highlighting the unsuitability of broad criminalisation in this context.

Amendment 53 seeks to expand the definition of identity documents under the Identity Documents Act 2010 to include digital identity documents. While the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, makes a persuasive case, the proposal raises two concerns. First, it risks pre-emptively criminalising actions before a clear and universally understood framework for digital identity verification is in place. The technology and its standards are still evolving, and it might be premature to embed such a framework into criminal law. Secondly, there is a risk that this could have unintended consequences for innovation in the digital identity sector. Businesses and individuals navigating this nascent space could face disproportionate legal risks, which may hinder progress in a field critical to the UK’s digital economy.

Amendment 54 would introduce an offence of knowingly or recklessly providing false information in response to notices under Clause 51. I fully support holding individuals accountable for deliberate deception, but the proposed measure’s scope could lead to serious ambiguities. What constitutes recklessness in this context? Are we inadvertently creating a chilling effect where individuals or businesses may refrain from engaging with the system for fear of misinterpretation or error? These are questions that need to be addressed before such provisions are enshrined in law.

We must ensure that our legislative framework is fit for purpose, upholds the principles of justice and balances enforcement with fairness. The amendments proposed, while they clearly have exactly the right intentions, risk, I fear, undermining these principles. They introduce unnecessary criminal sanctions, create uncertainty in the digital identity space and could discourage good-faith engagement with the regulatory system. I therefore urge noble Lords to carefully consider the potential consequences of these amendments and, while expressing gratitude to the noble Lords for their work, I resist their inclusion in the Bill.

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Lord Clement-Jones Portrait Lord Clement-Jones (LD)
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My Lords, of course I welcome the fact that the Bill will enable people to register a death in person and online, which was a key recommendation from the UK Commission on Bereavement. I have been asked to table this amendment by Marie Curie; it is designed to achieve improvements to UK bereavement support services, highlighting the significant administrative burden faced by bereaved individuals.

Marie Curie points to the need for a review of the existing Tell Us Once service and the creation of a universal priority service register to streamline death-related notifications across government and private sectors. It argued that the Bill presents an opportunity to address these issues through improved data-sharing and online death registration. Significant statistics illustrate the scale of the problem, showing a large percentage of bereaved people struggling with numerous administrative tasks. It urges the Government, as I do, to commit to implementing those changes to reduce the burden on bereaved families.

Bereaved people face many practical and administrative responsibilities and tasks after a death, which are often both complex and time sensitive. This Bill presents an opportunity to improve the way in which information is shared between different public and private service providers, reducing the burden of death administration.

When someone dies, the Tell Us Once service informs the various parts of national and local government that need to know. That means the local council stops charging council tax, the DVLA cancels the driving licence, the Passport Office cancels the passport, et cetera. Unfortunately, Tell Us Once is currently not working across all Government departments and does not apply to Northern Ireland. No updated equality impact assessment has ever been undertaken. While there are death notification services in the private sector, they are severely limited by not being a public service programme—and, as a result, there are user costs associated, adding to bereaved people’s financial burden and penalising the most struggling families. There is low public awareness and take-up among all these services, as well as variable and inconsistent provision by the different companies. The fact that there is not one service for all public and private sector notifications means that dealing with the deceased’s affairs is still a long and painful process.

The Bill should be amended to require Ministers to carry out a review into the current operation and effectiveness of the Tell Us Once service, to identify any gaps in its operation and provisions and make recommendations as to how the scope of the service could be expanded. Priority service registers are voluntary schemes which utility companies create to ensure that extra help is available to certain vulnerable customers. The previous Government recognised that the current PSRs are disjointed, resource intensive and duplicative for companies, carrying risks of inconsistencies and can be “burdensome for customers”.

That Government concluded that there is “significant opportunity to improve the efficiencies and delivery of these services”. The Bill is an opportunity for this Government to confirm their commitment to implementing a universal priority services register and delivering any legislative measures required to facilitate it. A universal PSR service must include the interests of bereaved people within its scope, and charitable voluntary organisations such as Marie Curie, which works to support bereaved people, should be consulted in its development.

I have some questions to the Minister. First, what measures does this Bill introduce that will reduce the administrative burden on bereaved people after the death of a loved one? Secondly, the Tell Us Once service was implemented in 2010 and the original equality impact assessment envisaged that its operation should be kept under review to reflect the changing nature of how people engage with public services, but no review has ever happened. Will the Minister therefore commit the Government to undertake a review of Tell Us Once? Thirdly, the previous Government’s Smarter Regulation White Paper committed to taking forward a plan to create a “shared once” support register, which would bring together priority service registers. Will the Minister commit this Government to taking that work forward? I beg to move.

Lord Stevenson of Balmacara Portrait Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Lab)
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My Lords, it occurred to me when the noble Lord was speaking that we had lost a valuable member of our Committee. This could not be the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, who was speaking to us just then. It must have been some form of miasma or technical imposition. Maybe his identity has been stolen and not been replaced. Normally, the noble Lord would have arrived with a short but punchy speech that set out in full how the new scheme was to be run, by whom, at what price, what its extent would be and the changes that would result. The Liberal future it may have been, but it was always delightful to listen to. I am sad that all the noble Lord has asked for here is a modest request, which I am sure the noble Baroness will want to jump to and accept, to carry out a review—as if we did not have enough of those.

Seriously, I once used the service that we have been talking about when my father-in-law died, and I found it amazing. It was also one that I stumbled on and did not know about before it happened. Deaths did not happen often enough in my family to make me aware of it. But, like the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, I felt that it should have done much more than what it did, although it was valuable for what it did. It also occurred to me, as life moved on and we produced children, that there would be a good service when introducing a new person—a service to tell you once about that, because the number of tough issues one has to deal with when children are born is also extraordinary and can be annoying, if you miss out on one—particularly with the schooling issues, which are more common these days than they were when my children were being born.

I endorse what was said, and regret that the amendment perhaps did not go further, but I hope that the Minister when she responds will have good news for us.

Viscount Camrose Portrait Viscount Camrose (Con)
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I thank the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, for raising this, and the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, for raising the possibility that we are in the presence of a digital avatar of the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones. It is a scary thought, indeed.

The amendment requires a review of the operation of the Tell Us Once programme, which seeks to provide a simpler mechanism for citizens to pass information regarding births and deaths to the Government. It considers whether the pioneering progress of Tell Us Once could be extended to non-public sector holders of data. When I read the amendment, I was more cynical than I am now, having heard what the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, had to say. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s answers. I take the point from the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, that we do not necessarily need another review—but now that I have heard about it, it feels a better suggestion than I thought it was when reading about it.

I worry that expanding this programme to non-public sector holders of data would be a substantial undertaking; it would surely require the Government to hold records of all the non-public sector organisations that have retained and processed an individual’s personal data. First, I am not sure that this would even be possible—or practicable, anyway. Secondly, I am not sure that it would end up being an acceptable level of state surveillance. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s response but I am on the fence on this one.